FR Doc 03-7762
[Federal Register: March 31, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 61)]
[Notices]
[Page 15646-15648]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31mr03-146]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[CFDA NO: 84.349A]
Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program
AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice of final achievement indicators.
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SUMMARY: The Under Secretary announces final achievement indicators for
the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program, for
fiscal year (FY) 2003 and future years' grants. These achievement
indicators will help ensure that the professional development provided
under these discretionary grants will improve the knowledge and skills
of early childhood educators who work in high-poverty communities, and
will enhance the school readiness of young children, particularly
disadvantaged young children, to prevent them from encountering
difficulties once they enter school.
EFFECTIVE DATE: These achievement indicators are effective April 30,
2003.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melanie Kadlic, U.S. Department of
Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland
Avenue, SW., room 3C138, FB-6, Washington, DC 20202-2645. Telephone
(202) 260-3793 or via Internet: Melanie.Kadlic@ed.gov. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the TDD number at (202) 205-4475.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, or computer diskette)
on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Early Childhood Educator Professional
Development Program (ECEPD) is a discretionary grant program authorized
by section 2151(e) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA), as added by the No Child Left Behind Act, Public Law 107-110.
The ECEPD program provides funds for projects that carry out activities
to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood educators
working in programs that are located in high-need communities,
particularly those serving disadvantaged young children. These programs
are based on the best available research on early childhood pedagogy
and on child development and learning, including the age-appropriate
development of oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness,
alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills. The grants serve an important
purpose because high-quality, intensive, research-based professional
development is critical for implementing effective early childhood
programs that improve young children's readiness for school.
ECEPD grants are made to partnerships of: providers of professional
development for early childhood educators; State or local public
agencies or private organizations; and, if feasible, a provider
experienced in training early childhood educators to identify and
prevent behavior problems or work with children identified as or
suspected to be victims of abuse.
[[Page 15647]]
Section 2151(e)(6) of the ESEA requires the Secretary to announce
achievement indicators for the ECEPD program. These achievement
indicators must be designed: (1) To measure the quality and
accessibility of the professional development provided; (2) to measure
the impact of that professional development on the early childhood
education provided by the individuals who receive the professional
development; and (3) to provide any other measures of program impact
that the Secretary determines to be appropriate. The statute requires
each partnership receiving an ECEPD grant to report annually to the
Secretary on the partnership's progress toward attaining these
achievement indicators. The Secretary may terminate an ECEPD grant if
the Secretary determines that the partnership receiving the grant is
not making satisfactory progress toward attaining the achievement
indicators.
The Secretary will use these final achievement indicators for the
ECEPD grant competition for FY 2003, and for future years, unless
otherwise announced.
On January 6, 2003, the Secretary published a Notice of Proposed
Achievement Indicators for this program (68 FR 547). These final
achievement indicators are similar to those proposed indicators, with
two differences. First, these final indicators will measure the extent
to which projects provide professional development on the effective,
age-appropriate assessment of young children. Second, these indicators
clarify that research-based approaches in early childhood pedagogy and
child development and learning domains include activities that promote
the age-appropriate development of oral language, phonological
awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills.
These changes from the proposed indicators are explained in the
Analysis of Comments and Changes in this notice.
Analysis of Comments and Changes
The Department received relevant comments from three parties in
response to the Assistant Secretary's invitation to comment in the
Notice of Proposed Achievement Indicators. The Department also received
other comments that were not relevant to the proposed indicators.
Commenters indicated their support of a number of aspects of the
proposed indicators, including commending the indicators' general
emphasis on child development research and high-quality professional
development, supporting in particular the indicator on participation in
and intensity of the professional development (Indicator 2), and
supporting the indicator on using research-based approaches that
include using a content-rich curriculum and activities (Indicator 4).
An analysis of other relevant comments, and the Secretary's responses
to those comments, is presented below. Comments are grouped according
to subject.
Comment: One commenter requested that the achievement indicators
include professional development in the areas of effective observation,
tracking, and assessment of young children, including children with
disabilities. The commenter indicated that, to ensure that content-rich
curriculum and activities that promote cognitive, language, social,
physical, and emotional development are achieving desired child
outcomes, early childhood educators must have access to high-quality,
research-based instruction and best practices in effective data
gathering, tracking, assessment, and analysis of child development. The
commenter indicated that professional development should include
specific, targeted training in how to use, and analyze effectively,
diverse valid and reliable research-based assessment instruments for
young children, including those that effectively track and measure the
developmental progress of children with disabilities.
Discussion: The applicable definition of ``professional
development'' in section 9101(34) of the ESEA includes instruction in
the use of data and assessments to inform and instruct classroom
practice. The Secretary agrees that specific training for early
childhood educators in the effective, age-appropriate assessment of
young children is an integral part of a high-quality professional
development program. This training will enable the educators to
administer screening and other assessments effectively and use the
results to inform instruction, and to identify children with special
needs.
Change: A clarifying change has been made to the first, third, and
fourth achievement indicators to clarify that the effective, age-
appropriate assessment of young children is included in a high-quality
professional development program.
Comment: One commenter expressed the understanding that mastery and
control over a variety of teaching strategies is included in ``high-
quality professional development'' in the first indicator and
``effective strategies to support school readiness'' in the third
indicator.
Discussion: The Secretary agrees that high-quality professional
development, and effective strategies to support school readiness, both
generally require knowledge and understanding of a variety of teaching
strategies to meet the diverse learning needs of all students in the
classroom, including students with special needs.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter addressed the specific ways that children
may demonstrate ``improved readiness for school'' in Indicator 5. With
respect to social and emotional child behaviors, the commenter
indicated that behaviors that demonstrate readiness include growth in
initiative, ability to orient to and feel comfortable in a group
setting, decision making, and negotiating ideas and social interactions
with peers and adults. The commenter also stated that readiness in the
areas of language and literacy will be demonstrated when children can
show growth in the use of language to express ideas, relate to others,
and explain and discuss their thinking as they investigate their
surroundings.
Discussion: The Secretary believes that the indicator on how
children will demonstrate improved readiness for school needs to remain
broad, to provide applicants with the flexibility to be responsive in
their grant proposals to their own State standards. School readiness is
defined by what each child should know and be able to do by the time
that child enters elementary school in the State in which that child
lives. That is, early childhood education should prepare children with
the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to meet a State's
preschool standards or content guidelines, if any, and the foundational
knowledge and skills that the children will need in order to meet that
State's content standards when the children reach the lowest grade for
which the State has elementary content standards.
Change: None.
Comment: Two commenters suggested that the achievement indicators
would be stronger if they were more specific concerning content and
quality of professional development. For example, one commenter
suggested that achievement indicators should indicate how early
childhood educators: engage children in appropriate interactions that
encourage early language and cognitive development; individualize
experiences for young children based on observation of children's
abilities, development, and learning; and form and maintain culturally
competent relationships with parents of young children served. Another
commenter suggested that the achievement indicators specify the
experiences in which early childhood
[[Page 15648]]
educators will engage children. For example, the commenter defined
``content-rich,'' as referenced in Indicator 4, to mean ``conceptually
rich experiences that grow out of direct experience with concrete
materials related to the disciplines of the physical and natural
sciences and the social sciences.''
Discussion: High-quality professional development for early
childhood education programs must be based on scientific research on
early childhood cognitive and social development. The Secretary agrees
that the indicators would be strengthened by indicating the specific
types of early childhood developmental skills that research shows are
included in early language and cognitive development, namely, the age-
appropriate development of oral language, phonological awareness, print
awareness, alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills.
As provided in Indicator 4, research-based approaches in early
childhood pedagogy and child development and learning domains include
using a content-rich curriculum. The Secretary believes that the
specific content and context of the curriculum should remain broadly
defined in the indicators, however, to give applicants the flexibility
to align their high-quality, research-based professional development
programs with their State's preschool standards or content guidelines,
if any, and to address the foundational knowledge and skills that the
children will need in order to meet that State's content standards when
the children reach the lowest grade for which the State has elementary
content standards.
Change: Changes are made to the first and fourth indicator to
clarify that research-based approaches on early childhood cognitive and
social development include the age-appropriate development of oral
language, phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge,
and numeracy skills. A change is made to the fifth indicator by adding
numeracy to the competencies that children need to demonstrate improved
readiness for school.
Achievement Indicators: The Secretary announces the following final
achievement indicators for the ECEPD program, as required by section
2151(e)(6) of the ESEA.
In accordance with the timeline included in the approved
application:
Indicator 1: Projects will offer an increasing number of hours of
high-quality professional development to early childhood educators.
High-quality professional development is ongoing, intensive, classroom-
focused, and based on scientific research on early childhood cognitive
and social development, including the age-appropriate development of
oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet
knowledge, and numeracy skills, and on effective pedagogy for young
children. High-quality professional development also includes
instruction in the effective administration of age-appropriate
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
Indicator 2: Early childhood educators who work in early childhood
programs serving low-income children will participate in greater
numbers, and in increasing numbers of hours, in high-quality
professional development.
Indicator 3: Early childhood educators will demonstrate increased
knowledge and understanding of effective strategies to support school
readiness based on scientific research on cognitive and social
development in early childhood and effective pedagogy for young
children, and in the effective administration of age-appropriate
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
Indicator 4: Early childhood educators will more frequently apply
research-based approaches in early childhood pedagogy and child
development and learning domains, including using a content-rich
curriculum and activities that promote the age-appropriate development
of oral language, age-appropriate social and emotional behavior,
phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and
numeracy skills. Early childhood educators also will more frequently
participate in the effective administration of age-appropriate
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
Indicator 5: Children will demonstrate improved readiness for
school, especially in the areas of appropriate social and emotional
behavior and early language, literacy, and numeracy skills.
Intergovernmental Review
This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive
Order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened
federalism. The Executive Order relies on processes developed by State
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal
financial assistance.
This document provides early notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all other Department of
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site:
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You may also view this document in text or PDF at the following
site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/ecprofdev.html.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6651(e).
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.349A. Early
Childhood Educator Professional Development Program)
Dated: March 26, 2003.
Eugene W. Hickok,
Under Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-7762 Filed 3-28-03; 8:45 am]
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